SELF-ESTEEMJust because you think you're a star doesn't mean you're going anywhere.
The Smoke Screen and My First Car
Definition of smoke screen: an action intended to conceal or confuse or obscure; "requesting new powers of surveillance is just a smokescreen to hide their failures"
What does an unread book and a 1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse have in common with a smokescreen? Sit tight, I'll tell you.
1. In August 2000 I bought my first vehicle, a 1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse. It's the same model that Paul Walker's character drove in the original Fast and the Furious Movie but it was a beautiful copper color. I loved that car. It was beautiful on the outside, the interior was immaculate, and it was a great price! 4 months later it was winter. In Utah. I quickly found out that my immaculate car was only immaculate on the outside. It had several leaks in the radiator, some engine problems, and the motor on the back windshield wiper didn't work. What, on the outside, appeared to be the ideal specimen of the perfect car turned out to be nothing more than a piece of junk with a fancy cover.
2. I walked into the office of the head of our Human Resources Department to meet about my wife's impending delivery of our child. On the bookshelf in the HR Manager's office was one of my favorite books about management, Winning! By Jack Welch. This is perhaps the greatest book I've ever read about effective management of people and processes(and I've read literally dozens). I asked her about her experience reading the book and to my chagrin she admitted she had never actually read the book. In fact she admitted she hadn't read most of the books on her shelf, most of which were about management.
So what do these have in common with a smoke screen? They all describe the business practices of several companies. On the outside they appear to be perfectly ran organizations that promote all of the business buzz words like "equal opportunity," "synergy," and "employee empowerment" but underneath that fancy cover they are like my piece of junk car with faulty mechanisms, or like the bookshelf of my HR manager--full of potential-- yet never utilized. Companies are missing the boat here. They're missing the boat on their employees untapped potential, on increasing profits, using sensible goal setting, and how to run more efficiently. Meetings in these companies are usually a feel good--get you pumped session but in the end that enthusiasm fizzles quickly. Most of the time it's because not all of management buys into what upper management is doing. It's because everyone has different motivations for why they work and because most managers do not take the time to figure out what those motivations are and how to exploit them to motivate that employee to help meet organizational goals.
My blog will be designed to explain some of the ways that companies have failed to maximize their potential. I'll give experience from my life as well as studies, statistics, and other's experience. Below is a list of topics that I want to cover:
1. Goal Setting the right way
2. Autonomy and utilizing human capital
3. The costs of and cures for employee turnover
4. Meetings
5. Etc.
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